Montana sapphires...

Cool finds Mike. I have half a sand bag full of that gravel to sort through. Been sitting in my garage for over 2 years. It's my understanding that if you spread the gravel out in a dark place and go over it with a UV light, the sapphires will glow, making it easier to find them in the gravel. The friend that I got the gravel from found a tiny diamond in one of his bags of gravel.

I'm gonna tumble mine with just a little water for a couple hours, to get all of the dust and loose junk washed off before trying to pick them out. Just tumble, rinse and spread them to dry.

Beautiful stones! I pawed my way through a bunch of gravel to extract Montana sapphires a couple of years back, and thought it was great fun. I look forward to seeing them polished.

To be a ruby, the stone must be highly saturated (i.e., more red than pink). It's a fine line. Montana does produce some corundum that is red enough to make it into the "ruby" category. North Carolina has the only other appreciable USA ruby production, IIRC.

Wow, can one buy this gravel online anywhere? We have tourmaline mines you can dig through in a similar fashion here, but those saphires look awesome.

Here ya' go and yes,you can order online.......

www.gemmtn.com

LOL! I love looking at the rough:). Do I want to CUT them? Oh heck no!! I have a fit cutting agates!! LOL!

The classifications are fer shur strange to me tho!!!

Thanks rocks2dust for the clarification:).

I go blind cutting 1" cabs, I can't imagine faceting teeny little stones!!! But I absolutely admire them!! (cut and uncut!!)

that is so awesome that you found such a pretty thing in the dirt. you going to polish them.

Montana Sapphires - History

Sapphires were first found in Montana in 1865 by early gold prospectors mining the Missouri river near Helena. These sapphires were the first sapphires found in the United States that were gem-quality. Several gravel bars along the Missouri river held not only a fortune in gold, but a vast array of sapphires that became known as Fancy Montana Sapphires, due to their large variety of fancy colors. These beautiful sapphires, first thought not to be very valuable due to their pale colors, and detrimental to gold miners whose sluice boxes they plugged, later became one of the many reasons Montana is known as “The Treasure State.” With heat-treating, a common permanent method used to enhance the color and clarity of sapphires, these pale stones became vibrant and intense in color with the treatment. While the most common color is a pale blue/green, many other colors can be found. The rarest color to find in Fancy Montana Sapphires is a true red, which is technically a ruby, and this color is almost never found.

The gold rush sent prospectors up every river and creek in Montana in search of gold. In some cases, gold was not found, but sapphires were--and in abundance! One of the creeks that was prospected for gold was Rock Creek in western Montana, in what became known as the Sapphire Mountains. Although gold was not found, in 1892, sapphires in a vast array of colors were discovered. Many of the sapphires along Rock Creek were very small in size and spherical in shape. These small round gems were gathered up, bagged, and sent off to Switzerland to be used and cut into round watch bearings. Sapphires of this nature were literally shipped by the ton for this purpose. The Rock Creek deposit is still active and is now most commonly referred to as Gem Mountain.
Rough Montana sapphires, uncutMontana rough garnets
Since discovery of sapphires in Rock Creek in the late 1800s, the sapphires have been commercially mined on and off throughout the years. In more recent times, Gem Mountain has operated a fee-digging area, allowing rock hounds and hobbyists a chance to dig for sapphires directly from the mountain. While fee-digging on the mountain has stopped, visitors can still purchase sapphire gravel from Gem Mountain to find their own treasures. Gravel can be purchased on-site by the bucket, with all the tools needed supplied by Gem Mountain for sifting; or it can be taken home and sifted.
Another site of sapphires in Montana is the Dry Cottonwood Creek area. Sapphires were first found here in 1889, and they have been mined on and off commercially since then. The Dry Cottonwood area near Butte produces a sapphire that has very similar characteristics to the sapphires found at Gem Mountain. This sapphire area is not open to the public; but if you know what to look for, sapphires have been found in many creeks in the region, although not in abundance.
In addition to Fancy Montana Sapphires and Yogo Sapphires, Garnets can also be found in Montana. Many locations across Montana produce Garnets. One of the most well known locations is Alder Gulch, which was one of the richest gold strikes in Montana. They are also found in abundance in the Ruby Reservoir and Ruby Valley. Ruby Valley is a misnomer, as the garnets were initially misidentified. The quantity of garnets in this area is so great that the “sand” around Ruby Reservoir is reddish in color.

The rare Montana Yogo Sapphires are not treated by chemical or heat methods, making their natural beauty one-of-a-kind. This is exceptional because over 90% of the world's sapphires are treated to enhance their color and clarity.

Great history here.
Yogo Sapphires - History
www.gemgallery.com/#yogo_sapphire_history

Pics

www.gemgallery.com/#gemstones
=========================
2.14 carat Yogo Sapphire
PRICE: $50,718.00
www.gemgallery.com/#gemstones:7

Thanks for sharing information on the history of the Montana sapphires, grayfingers.

Did you find any garnets while sifting, Fossilman? Hope you'll post photos of the sapphires you have faceted.